Dear Emily and Richard
Lorelai and Rory inform the grandparents they're going to backpack through Europe, which they don't quite buy. Luke is going on a date with Nicole. Rory receives an invitation to Sherry Tinsdale's C-section, but Sherry ends up going into labor a week ahead of schedule, and Rory, Lorelai and Christopher end up being the only "guests."
Reference books are read this episode. Backpacking through Europe by the girls and Gems of the Restaurant World by Luke. Emily sends Myra Waldo's travel and motoring guide to Europe.
Maid of the week: Leloni, from Honolulu.
The week before Lorelai got pregnant: Sofia, who got fired for touching the Baccarat unicorn.
The week Lorelai figures out she's pregnant: Aretta, who may have gotten fired for making Emily walk upstairs to talk to her own stubborn daughter.
The week Lorelai leaves home with Rory: Tina.
Tropes
- Acoustic License: Lorelai and Christopher sat on the staircase nearby talking without their parents hearing them while discussing solutions to their predicament.
- Affectionate Nickname: Lorelai calls Rory "Angel Face."
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Young Lorelai while in labor wants to hurt the nurse by hitting her, pinching her really hard, or using an epilator on her. Could be an aversion depending on whether the viewer has experience with epilators.
- Call-Back:
- For his date with Nicole, Luke wears the black sweater Lorelai bought him from a six trillion percent sale on Rachel's birthday.
- Lorelai is watching Quincy, M.E. as she goes into labor, mentioned in earlier this season.
- Captain Obvious: Sherry says "God knows what is going to happen" and, seeing as she's in labor, Rory helpfully informs her that she's having a baby.
- In the flashback scene of Rory's birth, Emily informs Lorelai she's in labor and then asks Lorelai if she's aware she's in labor. Lorelai tells her that explains her stomach pains.
- Childhater: Emily stands for all the cynical comments about Sherry and Christopher's new offspring this episode.Lorelai: [Rory] wants to see her new half-sister fresh from the oven.Emily: Well, that's about as unpleasant a description as I've ever heard. […] You could've just gotten her a puppy.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- In the flashback of Lorelai in labor, Emily bursts into the hospital and lectures Lorelai on the impropriety of informing your parents you're in labor by leaving a note. While Lorelai is being wheeled into the delivery room. She makes plans to continue the lecture after the birth.
- Emily takes Lorelai's suggestion that she get a DVD-player as an accusation she's an invalid.
- When Luke drags Jess outside to confront him about trying to Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone, complete with Dope Slap, Kirk remarks to Nicole: "They have amazing communication."
- The Fatalist: Emily thinks that if Lorelai tries to hook up the DVD-player, she'll get electrocuted and set the house on fire.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas: Screwing up and going into labor a week before your C-section is a big no-no in Sherry's friend group.
- Flashback:
- Sherry giving birth to Christopher's daughter makes Lorelai remember when she was giving birth to Christopher's daughter.
- The whole debacle with who's gonna join Sherry in the delivery room makes Lorelai remember that Emily wanted to join her in the delivery room. She buys her a DVD-player.
- Foil:
- Rory quickly takes to Sherry's workaholic tendencies and is about equally reluctant to face the fact that Sherry is about to give birth as Sherry herself is.
- Lorelai handles Gigi's birth much like she handled Rory's birth.
- Funny Background Event: Lorelai freaking out in the background and being restrained by Luke while Nicole answers her phone in the diner in the foreground.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Strobe's proposed solution to the Teen Pregnancy is to "get rid of it," but Emily doesn't want to hear it and it's never brought up again.
- Hypocrite: Lorelai thinks Luke is this for letting Nicole skirt Luke's no phone calls policy.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Lorelai keeps calling the baby "it," but not out of spite, seemingly just to distance herself from the process in case she has to go into the room with Sherry.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Jess attempts to make himself scarce after learning that Luke and Nicole's date went well. He insists he'll be out for "about an hour," and Luke is mortified once he catches on. He drags Jess outside to have a word and ends up giving him a Dope Slap.Jess: I guess I'm not going out for about an hour.
Luke: Say goodnight, Jess.
Jess: I don't understand you, man.
Luke: My mystique is part of my charm.
Jess: You at least want me to take a walk around the block?
Luke: Jess.
Jess: Take an extra long shower?
Luke: Go upstairs.
Jess: (to Nicole) Sorry, I tried. - Lethal Chef: Lorelai claims to prefer dieting to eating something Emily has cooked, showing that it runs in the family.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: Emily and Lorelai have similar cooking skills and taste in old movies.
- Literal-Minded:
- Rory takes Lorelai's well-wishing "tell Sherry to keep her legs crossed 'til I get there" as a serious suggestion.
- When trying to read the instruction manual for the DVD-player, Lorelai asks Emily to give her five seconds. Emily waits five seconds before she starts talking again.
- Nemesis as Customer: Taylor sends Dean to Luke's to pick up lunch for the construction crew and Jess ends up taking his order. Dean can't help but make sure this interaction is as irritating as possible, knowing Jess can't do much about it, as he is a customer.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, with both the Academic Alpha Bitch at Chilton and Christopher's mother being named Francine.
- Organ Grinder: Lorelai figures they can afford an Emily Gilmore kind of Europe vacation if Rory takes up organ grinding, presumably throughout the vacation.
- Running Joke: Mr. Ridgemont changing his mind about his retirement party.
- Screaming Birth:
- Subverted with Lorelai, not because she's not in pain, but because she thinks screaming won't help as much as hitting, pinching, or epilating the nurse.
- Sherry doesn't scream much either.
- Shotgun Wedding: Richard's proposed solution to the Teen Pregnancy was to have Lorelai marry Christopher.
- Shout-Out:
- Lorelai's Richard Gere pictures were meant for a Mr. Ridgemont's retirement party, but then he changed his mind.
- Lorelai quotes My Fair Lady on "the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain."
- Emily sends Lorelai Paris and Nicky Hilton's sort of travel books.
- Lorelai jokingly calls Emily the new Sarah Moulton.
- Lorelai watched Quincy, M.E. when she goes into labor.
- Howard Stern said that if you squat the baby comes out faster, one of Sherry's friends told her.Lorelai: Okay, as long as you have a sane reason from a reliable source.
- Jess suggests Kirk read Moby-Dick.
- Lorelai gets Emily Singin' in the Rain, Funny Girl, Easter Parade, An American in Paris, Urban Cowboy, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Footloose, and Flashdance.
- Street Musician: Lorelai suggests making money for their Myra Waldo Europe trip by grinding an organ.
- Take That!: Lorelai thinks Adrian Zmed has been doing ridiculous things for money and nothing else in his whole career.
- Teen Pregnancy: We get to watch the highlights of Lorelai's.
- Themed Party: The theme of Mr. Ridgemont's retirement party changed from fishing to the Kentucky Derby to Tibet with Richard Gere to golf to beanie baby.
- Title Drop: Subverted, since young Christopher says "Dear Richard and Emily" when reciting a hypothetical letter from Lorelai.
- Vocal Evolution: Lorelai's voice has changed in the years after her pregnancy.
- The Workaholic: Sherry Tinsdale. She makes work calls while in labor at the hospital.
